He's Football Crazy

Phil Taylor, Softwood Manager for International Timber, explains his real talent, football coaching.

Q: Can you tell us about your role coaching football at Blackburn Academy?

PT: I’m a part-time Academy Coach. I coach the under-13s group a couple of nights a week and we play games on Sunday mornings. We play against other Academy youth teams in the area, including Manchester United and, further away, Newcastle United.

Q: How did you get involved?

PT: I was a schoolboy player aged 14 to 16 at Blackburn; then I played with Blackburn youth team until I was 18. But I didn’t make it to professional level. I played semi-pro for a few years then got my coaching badges. It is a contrast to my daytime sales job, and I really enjoy it.

Q: You must have coached a lot of kids, any famous names?

PT: I’ve been involved in coaching for the last 13 years, there’s usually 20 in my group – so I’ve probably coached around 300 – including Damien Duff, David Dunn, Joe Garner, Martin Taylor and Phil Jones, who just made his debut in the Blackburn first team.

Q: Do you find it very rewarding?

PT: You’ll see two or three a year that have potential – real talent and you try and help develop them as footballers and as young men. If you’ve helped them to get on the ladder to first-team football, that’s really satisfying. It’s tough when they don’t make it, but that’s the nature of the game.

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